LDN 1251 - Dark Nebula

LDN 1251 is a dark nebula in Cepheus, part of the Lynds Dark Nebulae catalog-dust clouds that absorb the light of background Milky Way stars, revealing regions where new stars may form. It is sometimes referred to as the Rotten Fish Nebula due to its irregular shape. Located about 1,000 light-years away, it lies within a field rich in galactic cirrus, making the image particularly subtle to interpret. Captured from Starfront (Texas) with a Seestar S30 in AZ mode, using a UV/IR Cut filter, for a total of 10 hours. Processing was not easy: field rotation and uneven exposure from alt-az acquisition introduced non-uniform noise, making the final result more challenging than expected.